Sonoran Boulevard plan will be a windfall for Westcor

The first visible signs that life was about to change for the residents of Sonoran Foothills in north Phoenix came in February when new street signs went up.

Suddenly, Dove Valley Road was Sonoran Boulevard, which has a nice ring to it. Or not, as it turns out. Bryan Cazier suspected instantly that this was no mere melodious change.

"We were sacrificed," said Cazier, a Phoenix homebuilder who lives just south of the road. "We were no big deal."

And so comes the curious case of Sonoran Boulevard, and how what was supposed to be a major east-west road connecting to Loop 303 instead became a road that will run a mile north of the 303- dead-ending right next to a piece of property owned by Westcor.

A road largely paid for, by the way, with money from the countywide sales tax that's supposed to be developing a regional road system.

Cazier and his neighbors believe mayoral candidate Peggy Neely orchestrated the change while she was on the Phoenix City Council to benefit Westcor, whose executives have long contributed to her campaigns.

"Absolutely not," says Neely, who says she was just following the recommendations of city staff and several city committees.

City Street Transportation Director Wylie Bearup didn't return a call to discuss it. But in public documents, city officials maintain the road was always planned.

They're right. But they're also wrong, according to the city's own maps.

I'll explain, but first a geography lesson.

The city has long planned an east-west connection along an alignment that would hook into Loop 303 and points west. The road, now called Sonoran Boulevard, was to run northwest from Cave Creek Road, forking at roughly Central Avenue. There, the main six-lane road would continue west to Loop 303, while another four-lane road called Dove Valley arced to the northwest.

It's impossible to track through documents precisely what happened to that plan. City records are not only confusing, they're contradictory.

Basically, it boils down to this: While city maps show both roads being built, the City Council in 2006 decided to use regional tax funds to build the northern Dove Valley segment, which runs to the Westcor land, rather than building the southern Sonoran Boulevard segment, which runs to Loop 303.

In 2009, the city asked the Maricopa Association of Governments, which oversees Proposition 400 projects, to approve the change. This at a time when Neely was its chairman.

And late last year, the Phoenix City Council changed the names of the roads. So now, Dove Valley is Sonoran Boulevard and Sonoran Boulevard is Sonoran Desert Drive.

Translation: Sonoran Boulevard - the road being paid for with regional sales-tax funds - is set to go from the east side of Phoenix to the old Dove Valley, missing Loop 303 by a mile but running right up to land where Westcor plans to build a hospital.

Meanwhile, there is no money to build the road that would hook into Loop 303. The city plans to require developers to build it, once the area fills out.

Cazier says quietly changing the name of Dove Valley to Sonoran Boulevard makes the city's intentions clear. Dove Valley is to be the major east-west connector.

"Essentially, they hijacked the road," he said. "Instead of going to the 303, they took it to Westcor. Now Westcor's property is worth a lot more money."

Paul Gilbert, Westcor's zoning attorney and coincidentally co-chairman of Neely's campaign-finance committee, acknowledges that the road could benefit Westcor. But he says he never talked to Neely about it.

"My understanding is Peggy wanted the Sonoran Boulevard, but it wasn't because I lobbied or anyone at Westcor," he told me.

Neely says she was just following the staff's recommendation.

"Choosing south or north, I think, is one of those deals that it was based upon staff saying we have the right of way," she said.

On Tuesday, Neely's replacement, Councilman Brian Jeffries, asked the City Council to take a second look at the project. The vote, by the way, was 7-1 to take a second look.

Only Councilman Michael Johnson, who is coincidentally supporting Neely for mayor, thought it was a bad idea.